Mental disorders

The relevance of this topic is that mental illness is much more common than is commonly believed. And the thing is that many mentally ill people do not consider themselves as such, and even if they are aware of some kind of trouble, they are panicky afraid of showing themselves to a psychiatrist. All this, of course, is associated with obsolete traditions: psychiatry has long been one of the methods of intimidation and curbing, both sick and dissenters. For many centuries, people's ideas about mental disorders were formed on the basis of mystical and religious sources. The natural-science understanding of mental illnesses as brain diseases was originally expressed by ancient Greek philosophers and doctors, but it coexisted for a long time with superstitious ideas. So, in ancient Rome it was believed that madness is sent by the gods, and in some cases it was considered as a sign of selectivity (for example, epilepsy was called a holy disease). In the Middle Ages in Europe, psychoses were considered the product of the devil. The treatment of the mentally ill by "expelling the demon" was carried out by the clergy. Some of the mentally ill were burned, considering them witches and sorcerers. The first charity houses of the mentally ill were created at monasteries, and the sick were kept in straitjackets and chains "to curb the devil." In Russia, the mentally ill were called both “possessed” (by the devil) and “blessed” (from the word “good”); among the holy fools there were many mental patients. The charity of the mentally ill was also carried out in monasteries, and the treatment - "expelling the demon" - in the church.

In the modern world, science, or the field of clinical medicine, studying the causes, signs and course of mental illness, as well as developing ways to prevent, treat and restore the mental abilities of a sick person, is called psychiatry.

Psychiatry as a medical discipline arose at the end of the 18th century. At this time, doctors began to speak out against cruelty to restless patients, began to use drugs, study the natural causes of the disease, and from the various manifestations of mental disorders, distinguish groups of symptoms related to a particular disease. Over the past century, psychiatry has made significant strides. Many forms of mental illness respond to treatment, including those previously considered incurable. Methods have been developed to restore the social status (family, profession) of people who have undergone severe psychoses that previously led to persistent disability. The appearance of psychiatric hospitals has changed - they have nothing to do with the "crazy houses" described many times in fiction. However, despite the progress of psychiatry, for some mental illnesses it is still only able to reduce the intensity of painful disorders, slow their development, but not cure the disease. This is explained by the fact that the nature of mental processes in norm and pathology has not yet been fully disclosed.

The problem of mental disorders is one of the most important problems in the modern world. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the number of people suffering from mental disorders is an average of 200-300 million, and it is constantly growing. Thus, psychologists face the problem of studying abnormal behavior and how it differs from the norm. In Russia, this issue gained popularity several years ago, which is associated with a change in the political and social system. Mental diseases (mental illness, psychosis) are diseases that are characteristic only for a person. They are manifested by various disorders of mental activity, both productive, that is, occurring beyond normal mental activity, and negative (loss or weakening of mental activity), as well as general personality changes. Mental illnesses, or disorders of a person’s mental activity, whatever their nature, are always caused by impaired brain function. But not every violation leads to mental illness. It is known, for example, that with some nervous diseases, despite the fact that the damaging process is localized in the brain, there may not be any mental disorders.

The popular medical encyclopedia edited by B.V. Petrovsky points out that the causes of mental illness are diverse. Among them, hereditary factors play a significant role, in particular in the origin of oligophrenia, psychopathy, manic-depressive psychosis, epilepsy and schizophrenia. However, the occurrence and development of psychosis in some cases is due to a combination of a hereditary predisposition with adverse external factors (infections, injuries, intoxications, situations that traumatize the psyche).

The cause of mental illness is also intoxication, head injury, illness of internal organs, infection. Intoxications, for example, are associated with chronic alcoholism, drug addiction; among the infectious diseases causing psychosis are encephalitis, brain syphilis, brucellosis, toxoplasmosis, typhus, and some forms of flu.

In the origin of neurosis and reactive psychosis, the main role is played by mental injuries, which sometimes only provoke a hereditary predisposition to the disease.

In the origin of mental illness, a combination of causative factors and individual characteristics of a person plays a role. For example, not all people with syphilis develop syphilitic psychosis, and only a small number of patients with cerebral arteriosclerosis develop dementia or hallucinatory delusional psychosis. The development of a mental illness in these cases can be promoted by brain injuries preceding the underlying disease, domestic intoxication (from alcohol), some diseases of the internal organs, and a hereditary burden of mental illness.

Gender and age also play a role in the development of mental illness. For example, mental disorders in men are more common than in women. In this case, traumatic and alcoholic psychoses are more often observed in men, in women - manic-depressive psychosis and involutional (senile) psychoses, depression.

As the action of causal factors is diverse, so are the forms and types of mental illness. Some of them occur acutely and are transitory in nature (acute intoxication, infectious and traumatic psychoses). Others develop gradually and proceed chronically with an increase and deepening of the severity of the disorder (some forms of schizophrenia, senile and vascular psychoses). Still others, found in early childhood, do not progress, the pathology caused by them is stable and does not change significantly during the life of the patient (oligophrenia). A number of mental illnesses occur in the form of seizures or phases that end in complete recovery (manic-depressive psychosis, some forms of schizophrenia).

Another group of diseases that are not truly mental illnesses. These include neuroses (chronic disorders of the nervous system that have arisen under the influence of stress) and accentuation (that is, exacerbation or protrusion of certain features) of a character. The differences between psychopathies and character accentuations are that the latter have a less pronounced character that allows them to adapt in society, and over time, the accented character traits can smooth out. Accentuations of character most often develop during the formation of character ("sharp" character traits in adolescents do not surprise anyone).

Thus, the existing prejudice about the fatal outcome of mental illness does not have sufficient grounds. These diseases are not uniform in diagnosis and prognosis; some of them proceed favorably and do not lead to disability, others less favorably, but still with timely treatment, they give a significant percentage of full or partial recovery. One should caution against the idea of mental illness as shameful phenomena that need to be shy. It is with these misconceptions that accidents with the mentally ill are associated, as well as the manifestation of advanced forms of psychoses that are difficult to treat.

Symptoms of Mental Illness

The most common symptoms of mental illness are hallucinations, delusions, obsessive states, affective disorders, disorders of consciousness, memory disorders, dementia.

Hallucinations. One of the forms of impaired perception of the world. In these cases, perceptions arise without a real stimulus, a real object, have sensual brightness and are indistinguishable from objects existing in reality. There are visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory and tactile hallucinations. Patients at this time really see, hear, smell, and not imagine, cannot imagine.

Illusions. These are distorted perceptions of really existing objects. They are divided into visual, auditory, olfactory, tactile and taste. The following phenomena can serve as examples of visual illusions: a dressing gown hanging in a room is mistaken for a person, a bush in a forest - for someone an animal. Auditory illusions include, for example, such a phenomenon when the noise of falling drops is perceived as separate words or phrases. Mainly occur in patients with infectious diseases, with poisoning, as well as in physically weakened people.

Rave. This is a false judgment (inference) that arises without appropriate reason. It does not give in to conviction, despite the fact that everything contradicts reality and all previous experience of the patient. Delirium is opposed to any valid argument, which differs from simple errors of judgment. According to the content, delusions are distinguished: delusions of greatness (wealth, special origin, invention, reformism, genius, love), delusions of persecution (poisoning, accusations).

Obsessive states. Involuntarily and irresistibly arising thoughts, ideas, fears, memories, doubts, drives, movements, the painful nature of which is recognized, critically evaluated, the subject is constantly struggling with some. It is characteristic of patients with schizophrenia.

Affective disorder. These are mood disorders. They are divided into manic and depressive states.

Disorders of consciousness. These are transient short-term (hours, days) disturbances in mental activity, which are characterized by partial or complete detachment from the environment, various degrees of disorientation in the place, time, surrounding persons, impaired thinking with partial or complete impossibility of correct judgments, complete or partial forgotten events that occur during a period of frustrated consciousness.

Memory disorders. This translates into a decrease in the ability to remember, save and reproduce facts and events. The complete lack of memory is called amnesia.

Disorders of thinking. There are several types: acceleration (thinking is so accelerated that patients do not have time to express their thoughts in words, manic-depressive psychosis), slowdown (some idea is delayed in the mind for a long time, manic-depressive psychosis), viscosity (a detailed description of unnecessary details, a delay in transition to the main thing, epilepsy), resonance (unnecessary reasoning, empty philosophies, schizophrenia), disruption (single words or parts of phrases).

Types of Mental Illness

Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is a common mental illness often encountered in psychiatric practice with increasing emotional impoverishment and impaired thinking with a formally preserved memory.

In different countries, the number of patients with schizophrenia ranges from 0.15 to 1-2%. The difficulty in isolating schizophrenia is explained by the diversity of the clinical picture of the disease. The cause of schizophrenia is not yet known. Convincing data on the significance of a hereditary predisposition are obtained. Weakness of nerve cells, which develops as a result of poisoning by products of impaired metabolism (mainly protein metabolism), is important.

The clinical picture. Depending on the form of schizophrenia, various manifestations of a mental disorder are observed - delirium, hallucinations, agitation, immobility and other persistent changes that progress as the disease progresses.

The first symptoms are not quite specific: similar disorders can be with other mental illnesses. However, subsequently, persistent changes in the psyche occur, or, as they are otherwise called, personality changes. They are also characteristic of schizophrenia. Nevertheless, the degree of their severity depends on the form, stage (early or late) course of the disease, the pace of its development and on whether the disease flows continuously or with improvements (remissions).

At the very early stages of the disease, as a rule, even before the occurrence of pronounced manifestations of psychosis, these persistent and ever-increasing changes in the psyche are expressed in the fact that patients become unintelligible, unsociable, become self-contained; they lose interest in their work, studies, in the life and affairs of their loved ones, friends. Patients often surprise others with the fact that they are obsessed with interest in such fields of knowledge and in such activities for which they have not previously experienced any attraction (philosophy, mathematics, religion, construction). They become indifferent to many of the things that worried them before (family and official affairs, the illness of loved ones), and, on the contrary, are highly sensitive to trifles. Some patients at the same time cease to pay attention to their toilet, become untidy, lethargic, fall; others are tense, fussy, leave somewhere, do something, think about something concentrated, not sharing with their loved ones what they are occupied at that time. Often they answer questions asked by long, confused reasoning, ethereal philosophies, devoid of concreteness. Similar changes in some patients occur quickly, in others gradually, imperceptibly. In some, these changes, growing, are the main thing in the picture of the disease, while others more likely have other symptoms, that is, various forms of the disease develop.

Given the variety of manifestations of the disease, only a psychiatrist can diagnose schizophrenia. Timely diagnosis is necessary for the correct and successful treatment and the creation of a patient sparing working and living conditions.

Treatment. Although the cause of the disease is unknown, it is treatable. Modern psychiatry has a wide selection of medical methods (medical, psychotherapeutic, occupational) that allow you to influence schizophrenia. The combination of these methods with a system of measures to restore disability and the ability to live an active life in a team makes it possible to achieve a long absence of manifestations of the disease. Patients with schizophrenia without exacerbations remain able to work, can live in the family, under the regular supervision of a psychiatrist. Only the doctor can monitor the patient’s condition, the possibility of outpatient treatment, or the need for hospitalization, and the length of stay in the hospital. Assessing the condition of the patient, both by himself and his relatives, is often erroneous.

Features of the personality of patients. Patients with schizophrenia are characterized by a loss of unity of mental activity: aspirations, actions, feelings lose their connection with real reality, inadequacy of feelings arises, followed by a decrease in emotionality, coldness, dullness. Fencing, separation from reality, immersion in the world of one’s own experiences appears. Gradually, patients become inactive, inactive, lethargic, inactive, sometimes they show activity and initiative, guided by painful experiences. Sloppy, eccentricity, selfishness, cruelty are growing. An emotional impoverishment arises with indifference to relatives, one's own destiny, and former interests and attachments disappear. Patients are forced to interrupt their studies, become uninitiated at work, their ability to work is often reduced, and apathy increases. At the remote stages of the disease, delusional disorders appear in the form of delusions of invention, reformism, jealousy, sometimes in combination with elements of the ideas of persecution; the absurd delirium of the greatness of fantastic content also arises.

Affective insanity

Manic-depressive psychosis is a periodically occurring psychosis manifested by seizures (stages) of mania or depression. The etiology of the disease is not well understood. Attributed to the hereditary burden of the disease, and predisposing moments include mental trauma and somatic diseases. The disease usually occurs in adulthood, women are more likely to get sick.

The clinical picture. One of the features of this disease is the recurrence of manic and depressive attacks. These seizures can occur and repeat in different ways: manic can be replaced by depressive without a clear gap or between a manic and depressive fit there is a clear gap that lasts from several days to several years. The duration of the attacks is very different. They can last from 2 to 10 months. More often, the disease begins with a depressive attack. Sometimes only manic or only depressive attacks predominate in the clinical picture.

The second feature is that the light gap between the phases is characterized by the restoration of mental health. Patients usually behave the same as before the disease.

The third feature is that no matter how hard the seizures occur, no matter how often they occur, personality degradation never develops.

The manic phase. Patients have a cheerful mood, an increased desire for activity. They undertake everything, intervene in all matters, draw up bold projects, strive to implement them, and seek admission from "responsible persons". Often, patients overestimate their capabilities: for example, having no relation to medicine, they offer their own methods of treatment. Sometimes this reassessment takes on the character of delusional utterances.

For patients in the manic phase, increased sexuality is characteristic. Outside the hospital, they often engage in casual relationships. Also, in the manic phase, patients talk a lot, but they can not always be understood. Due to the accelerated flow of ideas, speech can sometimes become so fast that externally it may give the impression of being broken: patients miss individual words and phrases. They themselves say that their language does not have time to express all thoughts. In this regard, patients talk a lot, their voice becomes hoarse. The importunity of such patients annoys others.

Often there is increased distractibility. Patients do not finish a single case; they sleep very little, sometimes 2-3 hours a day, and do not feel tired at all. Their mood is usually cheerful, but sometimes they are angry and easily come into conflict.

Depressive phase. Patients in a depressed state perceive everything in gloomy tones, constantly experience a feeling of longing. They usually speak slowly, in a low voice, most of the time they sit with their heads down, their movements are sharply slowed down.

Patients change their attitude to relatives and friends. Delusional expressions are possible, most often this is nonsense of self-blaming. Patients claim that all their actions were only a hoax, which caused irreparable harm to everyone. Sometimes patients come to the conclusion that they should not live, attempt suicide, refuse food.

In recent decades, the clinical picture of manic-depressive psychosis has undergone certain changes, in particular, depressive states have become predominant, and manic - relatively rare. Along with typical depressive states, so-called masked depressions are often found. They are characterized not so much by a dreary as a depressed, dull mood, the appearance of many somatic complaints (vague pains in the heart, gastrointestinal tract), insomnia, sleep without a sense of relaxation.

Treatment. If signs of the disease are detected, urgent hospitalization is needed, where treatment is carried out with the use of medications prescribed by a specialist.

Epilepsy

Epilepsy is a chronic disease characterized by convulsive seizures, certain personality changes, sometimes progressing to dementia. Epilepsy as a disease was known in ancient Egypt, as well as in the ancient world. Hippocrates in the treatise "On the sacred disease" gave a vivid description of the epileptic seizure and its precursors (aura), and also noted the inheritance of this disease. He suggested a connection between epilepsy and brain damage and objected to the widespread opinion at that time about the role of mysterious forces in the origin of the disease.

In the Middle Ages, the attitude to epilepsy was ambivalent - on the one hand, epilepsy caused fear as a disease that could not be cured, on the other hand, it was often associated with obsession, trance, observed in saints and prophets. The fact that many great people (Socrates, Plato, Julius Caesar, Caligula, Petrarch, etc.) suffered from epilepsy served as a prerequisite for the spread of the theory that epileptics are people of great mind. However, later in the eighteenth century, epilepsy often became identified with insanity and patients with epilepsy were hospitalized in psychiatric hospitals.

Only in 1849, and then in 1867, the first specialized clinics for epilepsy patients were organized in England and Germany.

At a later time in our country, the study of epilepsy was given great attention by domestic psychiatrists S.S. Korsakov (1893), P.I. Kovalevsky (1898, 1902), A.A. Muratov (1900) and others, and in recent decades, scientists have studied epilepsy very widely and multifaceted using modern epidemiological, genetic, neurophysiological, biochemical research methods, as well as methods of modern psychology and clinical psychiatry.

Epilepsy in different age groups

Today, epilepsy is considered one of the most common diseases in neurology. The incidence of epilepsy is 50-70 cases per hundred thousand people, the prevalence is 5-10 diseases per thousand people (0.5-1%). At least one seizure is transmitted by 5% of the population throughout life; in 20-30% of patients, the disease is lifelong.

In 70% of patients, epilepsy makes its debut in childhood and adolescence and is considered to be one of the main diseases of pediatric psychoneurology. The highest incidence rates are observed in the first year of life, the minimum - between 30-40 years and then at a later age they again increase. The prevalence of epilepsy in adults is 0.1-0.5%.

In 75% of patients, the first episode of epilepsy develops before the age of 18, in 12-20% of cases convulsive events are familial in nature. Obviously, this is due to structural features and functions of the brain of children and adolescents, with tension and imperfection of metabolic regulation, lability and a tendency to irradiation of excitation, with increased vascular permeability, hydrophilicity of the brain, etc.

There are no significant differences in the frequency of epilepsy in men and women.

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Depression

Bulimia and anorexia

Mental disorders

Schizophrenia

Origin, etiology and pathogenesis

According to the definition of the World Health Organization (hereinafter WHO), epilepsy is a chronic disease of the brain characterized by repeated attacks accompanied by various clinical and paraclinical manifestations.

In the origin of epilepsy, the interaction of hereditary predisposition and brain damage is of primary importance. In most forms of epilepsy, polygenic inheritance is noted, and in some cases it has a greater, in others - less importance. When analyzing heredity, it is necessary to take into account, first of all, the obvious signs of the disease, attaching a certain significance to its manifestations such as stuttering, and take into account the characterological characteristics of a person (conflict, viciousness, pedantry, importunity). Predisposing factors include organic cerebral defects of a perinatal or acquired (after neuroinfections or traumatic brain injury) nature.

Such conditions occur as a result of provoking reasons, for example, at high temperature, with prolonged chronic alcoholism - convulsive withdrawal symptoms, or with chronic addiction - convulsions caused by a lack of drugs. From this we conclude that only 20% of all people who have had at least one seizure in their life fall ill with epilepsy. Obtaining accurate numbers of the spread of epilepsy is very difficult due to the lack of a single record, as well as the fact that this diagnosis is often not specially or erroneously established and passes under the guise of other diagnoses (episindrome, convulsive syndrome, various paroxysmal conditions, convulsive readiness, some types of febrile seizures, etc.) that are not considered by the general statistics of epilepsy. psychosis epilepsy schizophrenia

In most cases, epilepsy is considered a polyetiological disease. Patients are much more likely than the average in the population to have a history of birth under conditions of pathologically occurring pregnancies and childbirth in the mother, severe infectious diseases, head injuries and other exogenous difficulties. W. Penfield and T. Erickson (1949) considered traumatic brain injury the main cause of epilepsy, A.I. Boldyrev (1984) found a large number of cases of the disease caused by infectious diseases. At the same time, it is not always possible to establish a direct relationship with any exogenous factor, since the onset of the disease can be delayed from the initial brain damage by several months or even years. In addition, in a large percentage of cases, even severe brain injuries occur without the subsequent development of epileptic symptoms, which does not allow us to relate the severity of organic brain damage and the likelihood of epilepsy. It is important to note that even with the most thorough history taking in at least 15% of cases, they cannot be established.

Quite contradictory points of view exist regarding the hereditary transmission of epilepsy. It is known that among the closest relatives of patients with epilepsy, the incidence is higher than in the population (about 4%). However, family cases of the disease are rare. An example of family inheritance is the syndrome of benign neonatal convulsions. In fact, we can only talk about the transmission of a hereditary predisposition to the disease. On average, the probability of having a child with epilepsy is only 0.5% in healthy parents.

The pathogenesis of the disease remains largely unclear. The connection of seizures with a local organic cicatricial process in the brain (“epileptogenic focus”) can be established only with partial seizures. With generalized convulsive activity, foci in the brain cannot be detected.

The occurrence of seizures is often associated with changes in the general metabolic processes in the body and brain. Thus, accumulation of acetylcholine in the brain, an increase in the concentration of sodium ions in neurons, and increasing alkalosis are considered factors that provoke seizures. The effectiveness in epilepsy of agents that increase the activity of GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid) receptors indicates the role of GABA deficiency in the occurrence of seizures.

In recent years, a close relationship has been found between the exchange of GABA, glutamic acid and the migration of sodium ions in the neuron, which allows us to consider violations in this system as one of the causes of seizures.

As one of the mechanisms of action of antiepileptic drugs, their ability to cause folic acid deficiency is called, however, the introduction of folic acid into the body from the outside usually does not lead to an increase in paroxysms.

Clinic

The clinical picture of epileptic disease is polymorphic. It consists of prodromal disorders, various convulsive and without convulsive paroxysms, personality changes and psychoses (acute and chronic).

In epileptic disease, the prodromal period of the disease and the prodrome of the paroxysmal state are distinguished.

The prodromal period of the disease includes various disorders that precede the first paroxysmal condition, i.e., the manifestation of the disease in the most typical manifestation.

Usually, several years before the first paroxysmal attack, episodic attacks of dizziness, headaches, nausea, dysphoric states, sleep disturbances, asthenic disorders are observed. Some patients have rare abscesses, as well as a pronounced readiness for convulsive reactions to the effects of various exogenous hazards. In some cases, a symptomatology more specific for epilepsy is revealed - the predominance of polymorphic variable non-convulsive paroxysmal conditions, which have a number of features. Most often these are short-term myoclonic twitches of individual muscles or muscle groups, hardly noticeable to others, often without changes in consciousness and timed to a certain time of day. These conditions are often combined with short-term sensations of heaviness in the head, headaches of a certain localization, paresthesias, as well as vegetative and ideational non-convulsive paroxysms. Vegetative paroxysms are manifested by sudden difficulties in breathing, a change in the rhythm of breathing, heart attacks, etc. Ideative paroxysms most often have the character of violent thoughts, acceleration or deceleration of thinking. As the disease develops, the manifestations described in the prodromal period become more pronounced and frequent.

The prodromes of paroxysms directly precede the development of an epileptic seizure. According to most researchers, they occur in 10% of cases (in other patients, seizures develop without obvious precursors). The clinical picture of seizure prodrome is non-specific, with a wide range of symptoms. In some patients, the duration of the prodrome is several minutes or several hours, in others it is equal to days or more. Usually, the prodrome includes asthenic disorders with symptoms of irritable weakness and a persistent headache, different in nature, intensity and localization.

Paroxysm can be preceded by paroxysmal affective disorders: periods of mild or more severe depression with a touch of displeasure, irritability; hypomanic states or pronounced mania. Often in the prodrome, patients experience longing, a feeling of impending and inevitable disaster, do not find a place for themselves. Sometimes these conditions are less pronounced and are exhausted by a feeling of discomfort: patients complain of slight anxiety, heaviness in the heart, a feeling that something unpleasant should happen to them. The prodrome of paroxysms may include senestopathic or hypochondriacal disorders. Senestopathic phenomena are expressed in uncertain and diverse sensations in the head, various parts of the body and internal organs. Hypochondriacal disorders are characterized by excessive suspiciousness of patients, increased attention to unpleasant sensations in the body, their well-being and bodily functions. Patients prone to self-observation, according to prodromal phenomena, determine the approximation of paroxysm. Many of them take precautionary measures: they stay in bed, at home, try to be in the circle of their loved ones so that the seizure goes away in more or less favorable conditions.

Treatment

There is no etiologically substantiated treatment for epilepsy; anticonvulsants are the main therapeutic agents.

In the treatment of epilepsy, 3 main stages are distinguished:

selection and application of the most effective and well-tolerated type of therapy;
the establishment of therapeutic remission, its consolidation and the prevention of any exacerbations of the disease;
checking the stability of remission by reducing the dose of drugs to a minimum or the complete abolition of antiepileptic drugs.

It is believed that surgery is primarily indicated for symptomatic epilepsy caused by local disturbances, such as a tumor. Surgical treatment of the so-called temporal lobe epilepsy is currently widespread, especially with the ineffectiveness of drug therapy. The operation gives a positive effect if a clear focus is detected, mainly in the anterior section of the non-dominant anterior lobe. The operation consists in excising the anterior and middle parts of the affected temporal lobe, amygdala, hippocampus and is performed only on one side. In therapy-resistant cases of epilepsy, cerebellum stimulation is sometimes used through electrodes implanted in the anterior parts of its hemispheres.

Types and methods of first aid for the development of an epileptic seizure

Epileptic seizures are small and large.

A minor epileptic seizure is called a short-term disturbance in the functioning of the brain, which leads to a temporary loss of consciousness.

Signs and symptoms of a minor seizure:

Temporary loss of consciousness;
The airways remain open;
Breathing is normal;
The pulse is normal.

With a small seizure, convulsive movements of individual muscles and the "invisible" gaze of the victim are also observed.

Such an attack ends as suddenly as it began. In this case, the victim may continue interrupted actions, not yet realizing that he had a seizure.

First aid for a minor epileptic seizure:

If there is a danger, eliminate it. Calm and seat the victim.
When the victim comes to his senses, tell him about the incident, as he may not know about the disease, and this is his first seizure.
If the victim had a seizure for the first time, advise him to see a doctor. A major epileptic seizure is a sudden loss of consciousness, which is accompanied by severe convulsions of the limbs and the whole body. Signs and symptoms of a large epileptic seizure:
- The beginning of a seizure - the onset of sensations that are close to euphoric (unusual smell, sound, taste), the end of the seizure - loss of consciousness;
- The airways are clear;
- The pulse is normal;
- Possible respiratory arrest, but not for long.

In most cases, the victim falls to the floor without feelings, his body begins to convulse. Loss of control over physiological shipments may occur. The face turns pale, then becomes cyanotic. The tongue is bitten. Pupils lose their reaction to light. Foaming may occur from the mouth. The seizure can last from 20 seconds to two minutes.

First aid for a major epileptic seizure:

Try to protect the patient so that he does not harm himself when falling.
Free up space around the victim, and put something soft under his head.
Unfasten clothing on the victim’s chest and neck.
No need to hold the victim. Do not try to open his teeth if they are clenched.
When the cramps stop, put the victim in a safe position.
When providing first aid, treat the victim with all the injuries that he might have received during the seizure.
Hospitalization of the victim after the termination of the seizure is necessary if: it was the first seizure; there were several seizures in a row; the victim has damage; the victim did not regain consciousness for more than 10 minutes.

Conclusion

The most common symptoms of mental illness are hallucinations, delusions, obsessive states, affective disorders, consciousness disorders, and memory disorders. Separately, we examined the main mental illnesses, identified the causes and treatment methods. The causes of mental illness are diverse: from a hereditary predisposition to injuries. As the action of causal factors is diverse, so are the forms and types of mental illness. Nowadays, psychiatry is no longer engaged in punitive functions, so do not be afraid to consult a psychiatrist, because he can really help a patient suffering from a mental illness.

Epilepsy occurs in many people and does not interfere with their fruitful and fulfilling lives. A prerequisite for this is regular visits to the doctor, as well as compliance with the following appointments and regimen.

In conclusion, we give seven basic rules that contribute to the prevention and facilitation of seizures: